Bouquets & Brickbats [11/9/2010]

a consortium of restaurant professionals, gave St. Paul's Episcopal School in Lakeview $10,000 toward its new Outdoor Culinary Center. The outdoor kitchen will be used for prepping and cooking items from St. Paul's garden, as well as for cooking demonstrations and other school gatherings.

Presqu'ile Winery

donated $200,000 to the Edible Schoolyard project, which integrates organic gardening into the curricula and cafeterias of four local schools by teaching kids how to plant gardens and cook their harvests. Presqu'ile (a Creole word for "almost an island") is a California winery founded by the Murphy family, whose Gulf Coast gathering place of the same name was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina.

Southern Comfort

has donated $250,000 to the Gulf Relief Foundation, which supports fishing communities and wetlands restoration in southeast Louisiana. The beneficiaries included the Community Center of St. Bernard, the St. Bernard Project, Bayou Grace Community Services and the Gulf Care Consortium. Money was raised through bottles of liquor sold, as well as through a Facebook donation initiative.

Greg Meffert,

former mayor Ray Nagin's technology chief, pleaded guilty in federal court Nov. 2 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bribery and one count of filing a false tax return. Meffert had been charged in a 63-count federal indictment, and as part of his plea admitted to steering millions in no-bid contracts to crony Mark St. Pierre. He faces eight years in federal prison and will be sentenced in February.